We Capture A Flag
by Servant05
Summary: In Percy's first battle as a member of Camp Half Blood, he's set up...and he's not particularly happy about it. Betrayal (albeit slight), hellhounds, and further injuries expound upon the wonderful chapter already given to us by Mr. Riordan.
1. I'm doomed

**A/N: Hi folks. This is my first publishing story and I am posting this to check out the formatting/chapters/what the answer is to life/everything/etc. Many of you will recognize this story (especially this first part) but I promise there is no plagiarizing! Everything italicized in this first part is taken directly from the book and not changed in the slightest. There will be some recognizable dialogue and paragraphs that I borrowed from the book as well but it is intermingling with my writing. I also borrowed the title of this from the chapter name. I am a hurt/comfort sucker and sometimes want a little more (read: a lot more!) hurt and will take scenes like this and embellish them just a little. I do try to keep true to the story. **

**Disclaimer: I do not, nor sadly will I ever own any part, stock, or parcel to the Percy Jackson series. That honor goes solely to the fabulous Rick Riordan and his crew. **

**And now, for your reading pleasure, I nervously/proudly present...**

**We Capture A Flag**

Chapter 1: I'm doomed...

_Percy POV_

_There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right? _

_ Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory. _

_ Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual._

_ Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by. _

_ I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me. _

_ Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating._

_ On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark._

_ "Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed. _

_ Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords – not that that made me feel any better. _

_ They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin._

_ I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid as the Minotaur. They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned. _

_ Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back. _

_ Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt. _

_ They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing. _

_ "Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."_

_ I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb._

_ "Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."_

_ "The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way._

_ "Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."_

_ "You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say._

_ Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-ke-babbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut._

_ Seeing my own blood made me dizzy – warm and cold at the same time._

_ "No maiming," I managed to say._

_ "Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege." _

He pushed me away from the creek and I fell with a crash into the ground. They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. I heard a voice, just a whisper saying something about moving closer, but it was gone as quickly as it came. And suddenly, I had a second wind.


	2. I've been betrayed and injured

Clarisse and her cabinmates came towards me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled to the forest floor.

Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. I was still weak but felt a little stronger as the fight went on. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.

"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"

She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes, with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward into the creek.

Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.

"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."

They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

The game was over. We'd won.

I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me on the banks of the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."

I looked, but she wasn't there.

"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.

I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."

Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."

"A plan to get me pulverized."

"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but…" She shrugged. "You didn't need help."

Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"

"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"

"You should probably get that looked at. It's bleeding pretty good." As soon as she said that, I finally felt the warm liquid as it dripped down my arm and off my fingers into the dark brown dirt below us. I immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.

"Okay, definitely need to go to the Infirmary…" she stated.

Before I could protest much, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.

The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "_Stand ready! My bow!"_

Annabeth drew her sword.

There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.

It was looking straight at me.

Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"

She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her – an enormous shadow with teeth and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hound's neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.

By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly injured. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat, but right now, I only felt like 50 pounds of shredded beef. I felt my chest heaving with pain and the inability to suddenly take in enough air. My knees wobbled to hold my weight and I leaned against the tree, too unsteady to stand.

Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.

"_Di immortales!" _Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't…they're not supposed to…"

"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."

Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.

Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"

"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.

We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared. It took me a moment to realize that my body had also melted with the hellhound and hit the ground on my knees, my energy gone and head spinning. Somebody grabbed me from the side before I face-planted into the earth.

"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. She turned me onto my back and I coughed trying to remember how to breathe. I watched as my vision started darkening around the edges, but could feel a coppery taste in my mouth after that last cough.

I raggedly drew another breath, not deep enough to get enough air, and brought a shaking hand up to my lips. More blood covered my fingers.

"I don't feel so good," I whispered, starting to close my eyes as Annabeth held me closer.

"Chiron! Percy's injured. We need to get him to the Infirmary now!" Annabeth turned back toward me and shook me to wake me up.

"Percy, stay awake. Just until we get you to the Big House. Luke, help me get Percy up." Luke handed off the hard-fought banner to another Hermes guy and stepped forward.

My body decided to betray itself and I slipped away before I got fully upright, darkness blacking out my vision faster than any light switch being turned off.


	3. All better now - how did that happen?

_Third Person POV_

Annabeth struggled with the now otherwise unconscious Percy and Luke quickly ran to help.

Chiron sidled closer and picked up Percy's limp body from Annabeth and Luke. He looked around at all the campers still surrounding the area.

"Go back to your cabins. Prizes will be divvied out at breakfast in the morning. Everyone help any campers if needed to the infirmary. Apollo cabin, we need your best healers for this."

Chiron started off into the woods, Annabeth and Luke following on his heels.

Before he could get very far, another hellhound sprung out of the shadows. It managed to rip Percy from Chiron's hands and sent him flying through the air. With an unpleasant _crack!,_ his body slammed into a tree. As he fell, his limp body landed awkwardly on the ground. From where they were standing, Percy had a dislocated shoulder and a broken leg to add to his list of injuries. The Hellhound jumped over the three after his new Frisbee. He grabbed Percy's unconscious form and threw it away from the group. A splash was heard behind the three as Annabeth, Luke and Chiron stood to fight the new threat.

Annabeth disappeared under her Yankees cap while Luke drew his sword and Chiron raised his bow. Campers started appearing in-between the trees trying to see what the commotion was.

The monster growled at the two left standing and paced the confined area. After a moment of snarling, the monster started to leap over the two, still trying to get to Percy.

Chiron let an arrow fly, hitting it square in the eye. A large howl went up from the beast and it fell back to the ground. Luke yelled and ran at the animal slashing up and down the monster's body.

The beast still stood tall, now injured, but still trying to go after its intended target. It snapped at Chiron's back leg and almost managed to bite him if not for his quick reflexes and sudden arrow in the jaw.

The hellhound drew itself up to its full height, let out a blood curdling scream and charged at Luke who was circling around trying to get a good vantage point to attack. Suddenly, the animal stopped in its tracks and burst into black dust.

Annabeth materialized on the ground where the beast had just stood, breathing heavily as she held her knife, glinting in the moonlight. She sneaked a glance at Luke and Chiron and smiled.

"What a night, huh?" Luke asked.

"How did not only one, but _two_, hellhounds even get into the camp?!" She questioned in disbelief. "And why were both of them after Percy?"

Chiron started to speak but his eyes widened at the mention of Percy's name. "Percy!"

He cantered off in the direction of the bend of creek they were near, Annabeth, Luke and the rest of the camp right behind him.

They found the injured boy in the shallow area of the creek, still completely unconscious. Except now he had a new bruise to his forehead where he had collided with something on his way to his current position.

But as Chiron, Annabeth, Luke and the rest of camp watched, his bruise lightened up and disappeared. They also noticed that his other injuries were suddenly gone as well. And then, Percy was waking up.

* * *

><p><em>Percy POV<em>

Confused at why I was in the creek, I started to get up and managed to get into a sitting position, while Annabeth and Chiron splashed into the water.

"Percy, are you okay?" Annabeth asked, helping to hold me upright.

"I think so. How did I end up here?"

Before Annabeth could respond, a gasp went up from the clustered campers. They were staring at something above my head.

By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.

"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is _not_good."

"It is determined," Chiron announced.

All around me, campers started whispering, and suddenly they started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.

"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.

"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."


End file.
